North America, United States, Alaska, McKinley South Face, New Route Attempt and Accident

Climbs And Expeditions

Climb Year:

Publication Year: 1993

McKinley South Face, New Route Attempt and Accident. On April 26, six South Koreans departed from the 7200-foot landing strip, heading for the south face of McKinley off the east fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. Over the next few weeks, they pioneered a new route between the Japanese Direct and the American Direct routes. They fixed rope to 15,600 feet on the new route. On May 10, Song Seog-Woo and Lee Seung-Hwan placed a camp at 16,300 feet. Due to a forecast of an impending storm, the lack of food and inadequate protection for the camp, they decided to descend to Base Camp. After descending some 3000 feet in five hours, Song suffered a rappelling accident and a 1000-foot fall but fortunately survived. The accident is covered above.

Roger Robinson, Denali National Park and Preserve

North America, United States, Alaska, McKinley South Face, New Route Attempt and Accident

McKinley South Face, New Route Attempt and Accident. On April 26, six South Koreans departed from the 7200-foot landing strip, heading for the south face of McKinley off the east fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. Over the next few weeks, they pioneered a new route between the Japanese Direct and the American Direct routes. They fixed rope to 15,600 feet on the new route. On May 10, Song Seog-Woo and Lee Seung-Hwan placed a camp at 16,300 feet. Due to a forecast of an impending storm, the lack of food and inadequate protection for the camp, they decided to descend to Base Camp. After descending some 3000 feet in five hours, Song suffered a rappelling accident and a 1000-foot fall but fortunately survived. The accident is covered above.

Roger Robinson, Denali National Park and Preserve

This AAJ article has been reformatted into HTML. Please contact us if you spot an error.